Paver tiles, for example, porcelain tiles, have many benefits as a finish material. The dense, fully vitrified body of the product makes it easy to clean and resists surface wear. For this reason porcelain tile is the top choice for owners and specifiers looking to clad high traffic interior and exterior floors in tile. Traditional method of porcelain tile installation is to glue the product down to a substrate. This standard thickness (9-12 mm thick) porcelain tile alone has very poor center load and tensile strength when not fully bonded to a suitable substrate.
Currently, the plaza deck, rooftop, and landscape paver market is dominated by 2-inch thick pressed concrete architectural pavers. These pavers are considered to be self-supporting and have about 2 to 3 inches of support by the pedestals (only under the corners) at the paver intersections. Thinner and lighter pavers can solve a great deal of problems associated with load on the structures and shallow deck profiles. Therefore, porcelain tile manufacturers have been working to enter this market. A recent trend in the tile industry is for many manufacturers to produce “extra thick” 20 mm (2 cm thick) (less than half the thickness of the concrete pavers) porcelain tiles that allegedly can be used without bonding to a substrate, so they are considered a “self-supporting” porcelain paver that can be supported in a similar manner as the 2-inch thick concrete paver. While the added thickness does provide some level of improved tensile strength, shock impact and very heavy loads may cause these “extra thick” pavers to shatter just like the traditional thinner tiles.
Even the proven industry accepted 2-inch thick concrete pavers break occasionally. Likewise, the porcelain pavers break occasionally. When concrete pavers break on pedestals they merely crack into large pieces. Once broken, the concrete pavers buckle and fall off the pedestal supports. The broken edges may be serrated but are rather dull and will not seriously slice the skin. That is, the broken concrete pavers pose little risk of injury. By contrast, when a porcelain paver breaks it shatters like non-tempered glass. Razor sharp edges and large daggers and shards are created, which can easily cut the skin and are dangerous.